Chasing PRO Money, RF Sale and Tunesat Detection

[Art Munson]

I thought I would relay a story about my adventures collecting PRO money on a royalty free sale for use in a commercial. The commercial ran on networks such a Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, VH1 and a few others.

I initially detected the commercial via my Tunesat account, contacted the product company for a copy of the commercial and filed a jingle report with BMI. I was paid for 753 performances but Tunesat had detected 1283. BMI’s reply to this discrepancy was that they only pay on what Competitrack (which tracks commercial uses) reports. I do have a Competitrack account so I searched on the commercial and took screen shoots of the reported uses for four versions of the commercial, with the number of uses of each. I e-mailed those off to BMI and just received word that BMI will now pay the difference. Should be about $500 and well worth the effort!

[Art Munson]

bump:-)

[MichaelL]

Good to know. Happy to have switched to BMI. ASCAP, was and probably still is immovable with respect to third performance party data.

Thanks.

[Blind]

Not exactly true. ASCAP uses Competitrack data and requires a Comp# when submitting ad usage to them. Not to defend ASCAP too much, but the ad usage always seems pretty detailed and accurate on my statements, which is surely due to the use of the Competitrack info.

[MichaelL]

Not exactly true. ASCAP uses Competitrack data and requires a Comp# when submitting ad usage to them.

The key there is that ASCAP “uses” Competitrack data. So, Competitrack, like Tribune Media, is one of ASCAP’s internally approved sources for data.

They do not except third party outside data, like tunesat.

[Desire_Inspires]

I have a question for Art: Did you have your PRO info available at the RF company for clients to use?

If so, that client should have done the right thing and filed a cue sheet. I am sure that some clients know better. But they can always claim ignorance and say “This was a royalty-free purchase. I paid my money so I don’t care about filling out cue sheets”.

I am glad that you were able to get your PRO royalties out of this whole ordeal.

[BIGGROME]

$500.00 for 1283 detections?

[Art Munson]

I have a question for Art: Did you have your PRO info available at the RF company for clients to use?

Don’t know what RF site it was sold from. Most have PRO info though. It would be more than filing a cue sheet. They would need to file a jingle report with BMI.

[Art Munson]

$500.00 for 1283 detections?

No, $500 for the 530 detections they missed.

[wilx2]

Art,

Are you saying BMI paid you more based on the Tunesat data you provided, or because you caught a “miscount” of the number they should have had from Competitrack?

[Art Munson]

It was because of an incorrect count but important to note that I would not have known of the commercial, or the count, if not for Tunesat.

[Musicmatters]

Thank you Art, for keeping us informed. Thanks also to Tunesat. Time to upgrade my free tunesat… makes me wonder how much of our music gets used this way. I was just looking at the tunesat pricing and it can vary a great deal by region, could anyone suggest the best package/region monitoring that makes the most economical sense. BTW tunesat is kinda pricey are there any other options. Thank you everyone !!!

[wilx2]

Thanks for clarifying, Art. I thought for a second there that BMI was paying out on Tunesat data.

Yes, agreed, Tunesat can be worthwhile if only for the early heads up it gives you on a usage, so you can better make sure everything links up properly.

And yes, the Competitrack occurrence count is KING with commercials.

One crazy thing I just found out a couple weeks ago: Competitrack does not monitor all of its channels 24/7.(!!) With the LOGO channel, for example, it is only monitored for about four hours a day, and which four hours varies for all seven days. I discovered this because my Tunesat was picking up LOGO channel plays that Competitrack was not, and I saw that Competitrack was in fact picking up other LOGO plays, and so it was explained to me why.

And I believe the total number of channels Competitrack monitors is only 22.(!!) stated here: http://www.auroracap.com/private-equity/10-24-2013.php

Not sure which 22 those are, but they’re probably the “Top” 22 channels. I know that IFC, for example, is not on the list. You can see how it is very possible to get all kinds of Tunesat plays that simply won’t go towards the all-important Competitrack count.

After hearing your story, Art, I may now take a closer look at my Competitrack occurrence counts and compare them to my PRO statements to look for discrepancies. I had always assumed once you got that Competitrack code in to your PRO, you could rest assured that a count was a count.

[Jay]

tunesat has definitely shown me that there’s a lot more going on w/my music than the PRO’s detect…it still misses a lot and the stuff I’m not getting paid for used to bother me…(most of what TS finds for me) but now I see those placements as resume builders…I mainly write songs and my goal is to get some movie placements or some REAL high profile TV placements…been dealing directly w/some music supervisors lately (as well as licensing companies) and I figure the more placements I rack up the more a MS might think..hmmm..that’s a lot of placements..maybe this guy is worth a listen 🙂

tunesat’s been a big help to me so far and has found several placements I wouldn’t have known about otherwise…still on the fence about upgrading from the free version though..it’s pricey and most of what I make is on the back end and fluctuates WILDLY..

[euca]

@wilx2, 22 channels actually means they monitor 22 “media” channels. I.E. cable tv, national tv, radio, local newspapers, online ads etc.

I think they monitor 6 national networks and 40 cable networks.

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